Ok, well say the gnomes don't exist. That would be a confession of me, being pretty blind when looking for something... But that's only hypothetical, cause really it's the gnomes who are to blame indeed.

Plus, since this confesion thread was started in my honor, I think it's my right to post whatever I want in it. Ha.

Ripley (my oldest one, he's 13 1/4 years old) has a big problem with rottweilers...completely biased towards them due to bad problems in the past. Rarely does he see one, so it's not a big deal usually. But one of our flyball friends (on another team) got a rottie pup about a year ago...and Rip has had an issue from day one. She knows it, and we avoid putting their crates near each other at tournaments...as he's a big boy now...and Rip is smaller and frail. Rip actually was pushing his x-pen towards the rottie a few tournaments ago: lunging and barking like a fool.

Well long story short, my friend came onto Facebook yesterday, and said that her 16 year old BC was accidentally killed by the rottie (something about the BC accidentally "walking into" the rottie's mouth as they were coming out of their crates). The rottie now has found another home.

I feel horrible for my friend, because she put a lot of time and effort into training this rottie to be a well-trained boy...and she's heartbroken about her BC and the re-homing of the rottie.

But I honestly keep thinking...I'm so glad it wasn't Ripley at a flyball tournament...

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

I think I'm falling in love with one of the dogs at the shelter I work at.

I've managed to work in a shelter full time for over a year and a half without falling for a dog. Sure, I've been tempted a few times, but I've always talked myself out of it within an hour and never done more than said hi when I happened to be walking past the dog's kennel. Yesterday I felt my defenses weakening. When my boss found out and suggested introducing him to Renee because I had her at work with me, it took all I had to insist that I am not getting another dog. Then last night as I was walking through the kennel before I left, I walked through an extra door and turned on a light just to say good night to him!

The worst part is, it's a little dog! I am NOT a small dog person. His name is Ricochet and he is some kind of Chihuahua-ish thing with a black mask and a super long tail. His face looks like a miniature Malinois face. He weighs about 10 pounds and is about 7-8 months old. And he does annoying little dog things like jumping up constantly and wanting to sit in your lap all the time, and he whines. And the whole time he was doing that yesterday in the exercise runs all I could think was, "He'd be a great sports dog with a little training...he could be a height dog in flyball and could do all kinds of fun freestyle tricks...and I could train him to be a good little dog and show people that it can be done...and he's kind of a wuss, so he'd probably listen when Renee told him she was the boss." And the tiny voice in my head that kept repeating, "I do not need another dog right now, I cannot get another dog right now" sort of got fainter and fainter.

Thankfully my brain is catching up today and so far I have managed not to bring the little bugger home, but if he stays much longer, I might be in trouble!

I sometimes pretend to throw a favorite toy, hide it under the pillow on the couch, and make the boys look for it... they'll frantically search the whole house for up to 30 minutes, and when they aren't looking I'll toss it somewhere in the living room just so I can make fun of them when they finally DO find it.Like...:" Geez, you guys... it's BEEN there the WHOLE time!!!"